‘Cuse Is In The House: Remembering Donovan McNabb And The Bench Crew’s Forgotten Final Four Run

Syracuse has had one of the most memorable runs of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. As a 10-seed that some thought shouldn’t have been in the field at all, they beat Dayton, Middle Tennessee State, Gonzaga, and Virginia to punch their ticket to Houston. Back in 1996, Jim Boeheim’s team had another incredible Final Four run, winning thrilling games against Montana State, Drexel, Georgia, and Kansas. They toppled future NBA players and Cinderellas on the way to a National Championship appearance, where they ultimately lost to a stacked Kentucky team featuring Tony Delk, Derek Anderson, Ron Mercer, and Antoine Walker.

That run never would have happened if Jason Cipolla’s jumper in the Sweet Sixteen against Georgia to send the game to overtime hadn’t gone down.

Not that one of his teammates was all that concerned. On the bench, just feet away from where Cipolla took his shot, a Syracuse walk-on knew it was good the second it left Cipolla’s hands. Normally that wouldn’t be all that special. There are walk-ons who play for every team. Except that this walk-on was the school’s starting quarterback, and would eventually be a six-time NFL Pro Bowler and have his number retired by the Philadelphia Eagles.

I went to Syracuse the year after this. I was so excited to go and be at a campus with an above-average football team (McNabb was the QB) and a great basketball team. The next season, Syracuse was the first team in Big East history to win 19 games and not make the NCAAs. The next two years, they got in, but were bounced early. I graduated from law school, and the year after I graduated is when they won the NCAAs with Carmelo Anthony.

It seems like forever ago but going to football games at the Carrier Dome was electric with McNabb throwing to Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney coming off the edge. Wallace was also a terrific, if one dimensional, college player. Really skilled offensively.